Legal Pot In Colorado: Marijuana Sales Set New Record In June

Colorado’s recreational marijuana sales hit an all-time high in June, the state reported. Dispensaries sold $24.7 million worth of weed and weed products that month, a 19 percent increase from May and its highest monthly turnover yet, Slate reports.

Meanwhile, in Washington, retail marijuana stores sold $3.8 million worth of pot in their first month of operations, a modest start compared to Colorado, which saw recreational first-month pot sales top $14 million.

Denver continues to sell the most legal weed of any Colorado county, making up just under half of all June sales at $10.6 million. Denver sold nearly five times as much recreational pot as the next closest county, Boulder, according to Colorado Public Radio. Other counties that sold more than a million dollars’ worth of weed in June were Pueblo and Jefferson.

Colorado’s dispensaries have raked in $115 million in recreational pot sales in the first half of 2014, adding $20 million in taxes to the state’s bottom line. Medical marijuana sales accounted for another $193 million in sales.

Although legal marijuana is more expensive than black market weed -- consumers in Colorado pay on average $71 for an eighth of an ounce of state-licensed, recreational marijuana compared to about $30 on the street -- demand remains higher than officials initially predicted. The legal marijuana market in Colorado is estimated to be about 130 metric tons of marijuana a year, according to a recent sales data study. That figure includes both medical and recreational marijuana.

Colorado and Washington both legalized recreational marijuana sales in Nov. 2012. Colorado’s first retail pot stores opened Jan. 1, while Washington’s were delayed until July because of pot shortages. Washington brought in about $1 million in state taxes in July, the state reported Friday.

“It’s off to a healthy start, considering that the system isn’t fully up and running yet,” Brian Smith, a spokesman for the Washington Liquor Control Board, told the Associated Press.